For immediate release | June 25, 2013

2013 Diversity & Outreach Fair celebrates creating integrated and meaningful experiences for people with disabilities

CHICAGO — The ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) has selected 27 presentations for the 2013 Diversity and Outreach Fair, to be held from 3 p.m. – 5:30 p .m. on Saturday, June 29 in the Special Events area of Hall A1 at McCormick Place during ALA’s Annual Conference in Chicago.

The selected presentations will highlight innovative and successful library outreach initiatives and programs during a poster session open to all ALA attendees at Annual Conference. The theme of this year’s fair will be Removing Barriers to Service for All: Creating Meaningful and Integrated Library Experiences for People with Disabilities.

Presentations at the fair will also highlight library services to underserved or underrepresented communities, including people with disabilities; poor and homeless populations; people of color; English-language learners; gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people; new Americans, new and non-readers; older adults; people living in rural areas; incarcerated people and ex-offenders; and mobile library services and bookmobiles.

The 2013 Diversity & Outreach presentations will include:

ALA Committee on Literacy, “The American Dream Starts @ your library”
ALA Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgender Round Table, “GLBTRT”
ALA SRRT - Martin Luther King Jr. Task Force, “Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday Sunrise Celebration”
American Indian Library Association, “Talk Story: Sharing Stories, Sharing Culture”
Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA), “What’s Your Normal?”
Black Caucus of ALA, Inc. (BCALA), “The Black Caucus of the American Library Association”
Brooklyn Public Library, The Child’s Place for Children with Special Needs, “Bridges to Autism”
California State University Long Beach, “ Teaching Digital Citizenship to Youth with Autism Spectrum Disorders”
Chinese American Librarians Association (CALA), “Celebrating Diversity - CALA Reaching In, Out & Beyond”
The Coretta Scott King Book Awards Committee, “The Coretta Scott King Book Awards”
Curious City / Portland Public Library (ME), “I’m Your Neighbor: "New Arrival" Children's Literature and Programming”
Gail Borden Public Library District, “Remember Me: Serving Persons with Alzheimer’s and Dementia”
Hartford Public Library, “We Belong Here”
IFRT Merritt Fund Support Committee, “Leroy C. Merritt Humanitarian Fund”
Library of Congress, “EEO Specialist/ADA Coordinator”
Library of Congress - National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, “That All May Read”
Queens Library, “Greening Western Queens: Reaching New Americans”
REFORMA, “REFORMA - The National Association to Promote Library and Information Services to Latinos and the Spanish-speaking”
Spectrum Scholarship Program, “Spanning the Spectrum: Access for All”
Suffolk Cooperative Library System, “The Music and MemoryPackage: Using Customized Music Therapy for Your Patrons Living with Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia”
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign GSLIS, “Mix IT Up!”
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign GSLIS, “Speaking Up: Forming Alliances to Preserve Local History”
University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Information and Library Science, “How the Library Community is Building a Bridge to Literacy for African American Male Youth”
University of Wisconsin-Madison Libraries, “The Information Specialist Internship Program: Increasing LIS Diversity through Undergraduate Engagement”
University of Wisconsin-Madison SLIS, “The Tribal Libraries, Archives, and Museums Course: LIS Service-Learning with American Indian Communities”
Wayne State University School of Library and Information Science, “The SLIS Diversity Graduate Student Assistantship”
Western Washington University Libraries, “Serving Students with Disabilities: How Campus Partnerships Can Enhance College Education”

The Diversity and Outreach fair is free and open to all Annual Conference attendees. To learn more, please visit www.ala.org/divfair.

Generously sponsored by DEMCO, the ALA Diversity and Outreach Fair is an opportunity for libraries and member groups to share their successful diversity and outreach initiatives with ALA Annual Conference attendees, celebrate diversity in America’s libraries and exhibit “diversity in action” ideas.

To learn more about the Diversity and Outreach Fair, please visit www.ala.org/divfair.

For over 100 years DEMCO (www.demco.com) has supported the valuable work of librarians—taking pride in providing the best service possible. DEMCO’s mission is to continue to anticipate future needs, to supply products and services that support the activities of library professionals and improve library environments by making them more attractive and user-friendly. The people of DEMCO demonstrate their continuing commitment to library professionals through their support of the Library Champions Program and participation at ALA’s conferences.

The Office for Literacy and Outreach Services (OLOS) serves the Association by identifying and promoting library services that support equitable access to the knowledge and information stored in our libraries. OLOS focuses attention on services that are inclusive of traditionally underserved populations, including new and non-readers, people geographically isolated, people with disabilities, rural and urban poor people, and people generally discriminated against based on race, ethnicity, sexual orientation, age, language and social class.

Contact:

John L. Amundsen

Program Officer, Outreach and Communications

ALA Office for Literacy and Outreach Services

jamundsen@ala.org

(312) 280-2140